Special Session on Fault Diagnosis Methods in Electric Drives

Induction motors from a fraction of kW up to several MWs constitute the driving force of the industry due their low cost, simple construction and robustness. However, no matter how robust the induction motors are, they can still suffer from electrical and mechanical faults that can lead to failures and production shutdowns. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to detect a fault as precisely as possible and as early as possible before culminating to a failure. Due to the fact that the Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) methods, the predominant approaches for fault diagnosis, break down when dealing with non-stationary conditions or very low loading conditions, there is a constant need for new tools and novel approached that can cope with non-stationary conditions.

This special session is intended to attract research papers showing novel methods and approaches to the area of fault diagnosis in electric motors, focusing on non-stationary and variable load conditions.

Topics of interest include, without being limited to:
• Data driven fault diagnosis methods of electric motors/drives
• Model based fault diagnosis methods of electric motors/drives
• Non-stationary variable load condition monitoring of electric motors • Condition monitoring of inverter-fed motors
• Wind turbine condition monitoring 

George Georgoulas and George Nikolakopoulos